Price Pressures Mounted as Growth of Global Manufacturing New Orders and Production Remained Robust in June.

Robust growth of the world manufacturing sector continued in June, as companies benefited from the current buoyancy of global market demand. The trend in employment remained positive, with manufacturing jobs added for the thirteenth successive month. Although companies maintained a reasonable degree of pricing power, reflected by an increase in factory gate prices, margins were squeezed as average purchase prices rose at the sharpest pace since October 2004.